[Sigia-l] Information Architecture and Usability Professions

[Ziya Oz]

Jared M. Spool:

> You can't do this with post-design inspections and tests.

You need to broadcast that to the vast majority of people in your business.

> I'm assuming that quality employers *can* and *do* assess the contribution
> of their employees successfully.

Yes, when things are right, they are and Lake Wobegon kids are above
average, too. :-) 

> Again, this is a 1980's notion of usability you're referring to. Here, in
> the new millennium, we don't see ourselves as arbiters...

Did I miss the memo? :-)

> Usability > Inform the design process

I'll add that to my sig when usability people are hired by designers. :-)

On a serious note, I would like the usability process move much closer to
the design process and get integrated, as opposed to remaining as a
postfactum testing/validation phenomenon, the way it *still* is today in the
main.

There was a time when businesses thought slapping a "skin" on a developers
take constituted application design. We had demonstrably disastrous results
and, I think, we passed that stage in general. I don't think we've outgrown
the usability=postfactum validation stage at all. I think you're being way
too optimistic that we have.

----
Ziya

Usability >  Simplify the Solution
Design >  Simplify the Problem